Cambodia

After 2 days of temples we are all templed-out. We decide to spend the day doing not much. So I decide to treat myself to a haircut. My first haircut in 7 months. I drop by the local hairdressers. Not the one just outside Palm Garden Lodge (there were no customers and since going back in April it has turned into AB Bar with a red strip light and pretty ladyboys so probably wasn’t doing such a good job as a hair salon – this has no reflection on Palm Garden Lodge) but the one just down the road towards town. She was happy to cut my hair there and then. I had it cut, dyed black, head massaged and hair straightened for $10. It took almost 2 hours and I delayed a poor girl who was getting her nails done. The most beautiful black varnish with white & yellow daisies painted on. ...

5am start to Angkor Wat for sunrise. At that time of the morning Siem Reap is already humming with the sound of tuk-tuks, mopeds and bicycles all heading in one direction. Making our way along the promenade we were stopped by ticket inspectors with torches before proceeding to join the hoards around the lake at the front of Angkor Wat. We managed to get a good seat on one of the small temples next to the lake and Matt set up his 7D for a timelapse that turned into a time lacks. There was no sunrise. The clouds denied us. A few thousand people all looking to the sky for an hour of black to grey to light grey to white sky. What a disappointment. Darn it! ...

We arrived early on Sunday morning being dropped off in a derelict backstreet yard. It was still dark so we could have been in Timbuktu for all we knew. Luckily our guys at Palm Garden Lodge were awake and sent Mr. Long to meet us in his tuk tuk. 20 mins later we were snoozing in a lovely comfy room and 3 hours later we were eating noodle soup for breakfast. ...

I only went and forgot to say in my blog on 14th March that we’re HALFWAY THROUGH! (well when we were in Phnom Penh we were and I can’t even remember what we did that day. I presume it involved one or two Angkor beers). Funny how you can spend 10 years thinking about going travelling and here we are 50% done already. 6 months have flown by and from now on we’re on the way back….realised we’d better start thinking about a life plan of action. ...

What do you do when you’re at the seaside? Go lie on the beach all day of course. We hadn’t seen the sea since New Year in Thailand and it sounds sad but it was really exciting. Being by the Mekong is lovely but you just can’t beat seeing the sea stretch out to the horizon merging with the blue sky and the sound of waves on the sand. Lush. ...

Our bus to Sihanoukville was booked for lunchtime so we thought we’d squeeze in some essential sight-seeing before we left Phnom Penh and visited the Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda first thing Tuesday morning. It took us less than an hour to be unimpressed by it. The Silver Pagoda is famed for its solid silver floor. We expected sparkling, dazzling. We got dull, scratched. Only a small amount was uncovered and “on display”, half of which was held down with masking tape. In definite need of some TLC & Silvo. ...

I have been particularly slack on the blog writing front so am typing this a month after the event. Therefore it will be dry and sparse as my memory has faded and we have few photos. From Sen Monorom we went to the capital Phnom Penh, on a normal bus, with one passenger per seat. It took 7 hours, less than we thought, and the journey went surprisingly fast. By the time we’d settled into our hotel and ventured out it was dark so we couldn’t be bothered to explore too far for food. To Matt’s delight we found BB World. Nothing to do with Blackberry but Cambodia’s answer to McDonalds. Air-conditioned, free wifi, fake sugary mr whippy ice-cream. What more could you ask for when you’ve just landed in a big strange city after being out in the sticks? ...

If we thought the journey from Stung Treng to Ban Lung was interesting it was nothing compared to the journey to Sen Monorom. How many people can you get in a 13 seater minivan? Well if you attach a luggage rack to the back (boot open), pack everyone’s belongings onto it, tie all the extra random bags full of random stuff around it and pile 4 people on top, 4 adults on each row of seats, 2 adults in the passenger seat and an extra passenger in the driver’s seat plus as many kids as there are gaps…about 26 plus driver. ...

Kratie was a quiet town. Its main attraction, the rare freshwater Irawaddy dolphins, weren’t easy to spot as they tried their best to keep away from the 15 longtails rumbling around the Mekong close to sunset. However it was nice to see them as they could be extinct soon there are so few left. Dolphins: And boats: If you’re quick you may see one or two in these videos: ...

Funny minivan journey with 16 adult passengers, 3 babies (one naked, one half-naked from the waist down) and an 8 year old carrying a small plastic bag that chirped. To get to Ban Lung in Ratanakiri province in the north east of Cambodia. Found another form of paradise again in Tree Top Ecolodge. Very gorgeous wooden bungalows on stilts with all furniture made from reclaimed wood including a very simple but beautiful lamp which had a tree stump for a base and a branch for the stand. The verandah ran the length of two sides of the bungalow with deckchair, hammock & desk and views across the Cambodian countryside. ...